Message in a Bottle

What a fabulous and moving evening. This super energetic company combine modern dance styles with a discipline, commitment, synchronicity and sheer joy that many a dance group would envy.

Kate Prince has produced a beautifully crafted story that really hits home. A family lead an idyllic life in a village in an unspecified peaceful country when suddenly war comes to their region. Heading off as refugees, losing family members on the way and becoming separated, each of the siblings has to find their own way into their new world.  But you don't need a synopsis, you can read the whole story from the dance as it unfolds on stage in front of you. Heartbreaking and uplifting, not least because of Sting's songs and music weaving in and out of the story.

Lighting, projection and staging were perfectly pitched - the boat sequence being particularly impressive. The entire company, creatives as well as performers are to be hugely congratulated on such an impressive story. Of course, it speaks volumes to the world we live in with so much conflict and so many refugees; small, personal, stories such as this help so much in engaging us with problems too large to take in.  

A brilliant evening that brought a tear to my eye and an audience to its feet ...